The best antivirus will always be those that we install on our device, be it a Windows computer, a mobile phone or a tablet. Although in certain situations we may not want (or cannot) install a dedicated application to scan and see if our computer is infected. For these cases, nothing better than a good online antivirus.
These types of tools usually come great when we do not have permission to install programs on the computer or we are using the device of a friend or relative. In addition, some of these utilities also allow us analyze files potentially suspicious individually and see if they are infected with malware, a really useful feature.
Related: How to Know If an APK Has Viruses
Best Online Antivirus (Full System Scan)
Below we review the best online virus scanning tools, capable of performing complete system scans, detecting and in some cases even eliminating identified threats.
This type of applications they do not protect our device in real time, since they only get to work when we open the antivirus and run the scan by hand (something logical, on the other hand). To keep our equipment protected all the time, nothing like an offline antivirus!
Note: Although we are talking about online tools, not all of them run from the browser (as is the case with ESET, for example). In some cases it is necessary that we download an executable to perform the analysis.
F-Secure Online Scanner
F-Secure is known to be the fastest online antivirus of all when performing scans. However, it also has some negative point, and that is that it only allows complete system analysis. It is not a big problem either, since being so fast the process usually ends relatively soon.
Another of its advantages is that it detects practically any known malware, and it is also portable, which means that although we must download an executable to launch the analysis, it is not necessary to perform any installation on the computer and it does not leave any traces. Very simple and very easy to use.
Visit F-Secure
Google Chrome
Yes, the Chrome browser also has your own integrated online antivirus. The truth is that it is reputed to be quite effective, and considering that it is one of the most used browsers on the planet, it is most likely that you already have it installed on your computer.
If we want Chrome to scan our system for threats and harmful files, all we have to do is type the following in the address bar:
chrome: // settings / cleanup
This will take us to the free Chrome antivirus panel, which we can start by clicking on the "Look for”.
ESET Online Scanner
ESET's online scanner is one of the most complete free antivirus out there. It presents a really friendly interface, and allows you to do basic things like perform a quick, complete or personalized analysis. Once it detects some type of malware, the application allows automatically delete the file or quarantine it (which is incredibly useful if it is a false positive).
ESET Online Scanner official website
The best online antivirus (individual file scanning)
Sometimes it is usually better to scan a file and see if it has a virus, rather than wait for the antivirus to detect it and quarantine the file. This is usually a highly recommended practice, especially if we download a lot of content from the Internet.
To carry out this task there are what are known as “individual malicious file scanners”. Here we review some of the most prominent.
VirusTotal
This online scanner allows you to analyze individual files, as well as URLs, IP addresses, domains, and even hash files. VirusTotal has probably the largest free online antivirus database, and it is the alternative that I usually use when I want to check the health of an unknown file. Perfect to use it from the mobile or from a desktop computer.
Another advantage of VirusTotal is that it allows send files up to 256MB and receive the results of the analysis via email.
Enter VirusTotal
Metadefender
MetaDefender forms its database from the information collected by 30 different antivirus programs. Its operation is very similar to that of VirusTotal: we add a file, URL, IP address, domain, hash, or CVE and we launched the analysis.
The results are usually quite fast, with an interface where we can see the level of vulnerability of the file as well as other data of interest. A highly recommended free tool.
Enter MetaDefender
VirScan
VirScan allows you to analyze files of a maximum size of up to 20MB, it works online without the need to install anything on your computer and it is completely free. An excellent tool with an extensive database to detect viruses, Trojans, back doors, dialers and other harmful programs.
It also supports RAR and ZIP archives, but they must contain a total of less than 20 files. As a negative aspect, we could say that the speed of the service depends on the load that the antivirus server has, which sometimes makes it take a long time to throw a diagnosis.
Enter the VirScan
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